Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer steps in as governor of Kansas Wednesday afternoon. His predecessor, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, has been packing up his office in recent days, and is leaving behind a wish list for state lawmakers.

Local governments and school boards are worried about the possible effects on infrastructure and other projects if Congress passes a tax bill that eliminates exemptions for certain refinancing of bonds.

The Kansas Association of School Boards, which includes most of the state’s 286 boards of education, is urging its members to contact Sen. Jerry Moran and Sen. Pat Roberts — both Kansas Republicans — about voting against the bill.

Wichita residents will pay higher water and sewer rates starting next year after City Council members voted to move forward with planned infrastructure improvements.

The overall utility rate will go up just over 6 percent: For residential customers, that means $2.69 to $6.72 more on their monthly water and sewer bills.

It's slightly higher than last year's rate increase, and higher than the base increase anticipated this year. The additional revenue will go toward funding Phase II of the city's infrastructure maintenance and improvement project.

He’s one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Kansas residents and public officials waiting for the state to solve its money problems so that dozens of highway projects that have been indefinitely delayed can get going again.

City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to increase the drainage fee rate for all Wichita customers, with residents bearing more of the cost increase.

Right now, all customers are charged $2 per month, with commercial property owners paying an additional fee based on their amount impervious surface -- property where water can't soak into the ground. The new system will charge a base rate of $1.50 per month, and begin charging residents based on actual square footage of impervious surface.

A sales tax referendum on last November’s ballot would’ve put an estimated $27.8 million dollars towards street repairs in Wichita. The referendum was defeated, but the cracks and potholes remain. KMUW’s Sean Sandefur takes a driving tour of some of the city’s worst roads and has this report…

When you map out the streets that would have received a bit of TLC from the defeated sales tax, you see whole neighborhoods that are crisscrossed with course, uneven asphalt and concrete.

Belmont Street, from Pawnee to Kinkaid in southwest Wichita, is about as bad as it gets.